


Volcano

by historicallyredacted (lockandkey)



Category: Percy Jackson and the Olympians & Related Fandoms - All Media Types
Genre: Gen, Oneshot, disturbing visions, some violence
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-08-10
Updated: 2015-08-10
Packaged: 2018-04-13 22:39:06
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,685
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4540137
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/lockandkey/pseuds/historicallyredacted
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Something is very wrong with Leo Valdez, and Tartarus speaks. A soul corrupted.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Volcano

**Author's Note:**

> This is likely not a happy tale

  
  
They had to rest for a day, to fix Festus and because Calypso was curious to explore the now much more modern cities of Greece. Ogygia had been in much the same place as it had been before it was cursed, simply hidden away, that freeing Calypso and leaving once again left Leo in a now familiar port city on the Mediterranean coast. They had a bit of fun, looking around shops, and getting a bite to eat, but Leo was eager to get back to Camp Half Blood.  
That night, they made a small bonfire (easy to accomplish when one of you can create flames and the other knows magic) and laid down to rest.  
  
Leo fell into an easy slumber, still a bit tired from the whole dying and coming back to life thing.  
  
His dreams were anything but peaceful.  
  
It started with being swallowed by the earth, not a hugely surprising concept given the battles recently fought, but then it took a turn for the worse. His body began to fracture like dried out mud, vines twirled and burst through the cracks. It was a morbid sight, looking down at his own body deteriorating before his very eyes.  
And then it all went to black.  
No, not black, a swirling darkness. A void, and impending sense of dread and doom. A voice calling from it, out to him.  
  
Then, the bodies of his friends lay before his feet, bloodied and broken. The people he loved, gone. Camp Half Blood ruined, the world was ruined. The Gods were dead.  
And it was his fault.  
  
And so, Leo woke up. Calypso was shaking him, her brows furrowed and worry evident in her eyes.  
  
He had apparently been cold, clammy, sweating and shaking.  
Laughing.  
  
They didn't speak about it again, or rather, he wouldn't speak about it again no matter how many times she asked if he was alright.  
  
A headache formed and lasted the entire trip back, not a migraine, but a subtle ache in the back of his head. One you couldn't ignore, but one he didn't bother to treat.  
  
Their arrival back at Camp Half Blood was met with great celebration, partially for the defeat of Gaea and Leo's survival, but all the campers gave a warm welcome to Calypso as well. The revelries lasted days, and crosses all the barriers between Camp Half Blood and New Rome.  
  
It was a wonderful time, a happy time; so why did Leo feel so....... _angry_?  
  
It was unsettling, and more often than not the only thing he could do was fake his own happiness he was certain should have been there. Why did he have to pretend, was it his fault or theirs? Bitterness grew, spread, until it became difficult to fake anything other than how he actually felt. How did he feel anyway?  
  
He'd blame it on the headache, until the point where he noticed Chiron and Mr. D sending uneasy looks his way. They almost seemed scared.  
  
They wrote it off, told him it was nothing, _really_. Nothing to be worried about, probably. It was likely just a side effect of the Physician's Cure Leo had used. Dying in the manner that he had, and defying what should have been his destiny could take a toll on someone; surely, as time passed he'd begin to make terms with it and return to normal.  
Why did they get to decide what his normal was?  
Why did they think they knew him?  
No one really knew him, wasn't that right? He was just the joker to them, and maybe it was time that he wasn't.  
  
Sleep came quickly, easier than it had for most of his life. He continued to have the same dream, night after night, for the next few weeks. Except the darkness swirled larger, and closer with every passing night.  
As the days wore on, he almost found himself looking forward to it reaching him.  
  
The thought crossed through his mind, that maybe it wasn't moving, but that he was being pulled towards it.  
  
Piper and Jason hadn't been the first to notice his change but they were the first to ask, making sure he was doing alright. They made sure he ate enough, relaxed enough, didn't over exert, saw a healer, and got enough sleep.  
Sleeping was not the issue.  
  
Leo tried to listen to them, to relax, but the lull made him uneasier and more focused on his own thoughts.  
  
Hazel came to him next, having died and dealt with her own sorts of nightmares, she thought she could understand on some level. Support him on the emotional side of things, versus the physical support that Jason and Piper afforded him.  
  
Leo asked her if she felt different, before and after she died. Not exactly, she'd say. She was still the same person she had always been, deep down. Her new life allowed her to fully realize her own abilities and true self.  
He was afraid that same would be true for himself as well.  
  
Frank asked if there was anything New Rome could do for him, not knowing what else he could do to help but eager to try.  
  
Rome could do nothing for him, not anymore.  
  
Percy and Annabeth shared their tales, their struggles of being in the underworld and in Tartarus. They offered struggles and understanding. Percy spoke of the influence being in the underworld could have on someones psyche, offering that as a possible reason for Leo's change in behavior.  
  
The darkness Leo saw in his dreams, he now understood was Tartarus. Why was a primordial force speaking out to him?  
Why the notion was almost..exciting.  
  
When he wished to hear more, to be spoken to longer, Leo tried to write it off as gathering information on the enemy.  
Was Tartarus his enemy? It was becoming harder to remember.  
  
Even Nico and Will came to him last, in their distinctly and uniquely different manners of dealing with people.  
  
Will could not heal him, and Nico could not kill him, and so they were of no use.  
  
Something was wrong, something was deeply wrong with him, but he didn't know the extent of the problem until a training exercise game later that year.  
  
Everything was going fine up until then, Leo had been more relaxed than usual having the chance to take his mind off of his mind for a time. The games were going well, quick paced, and just enough danger to make things exciting without being deadly. It was fun.  
Or so they thought, before part of a onager collapsed, sending a heavy oak beam towards Leo's skull.  
People around him screamed as he raised his hands in a last ditch effort to save his life. It worked, but not how he had expected.  
  
The earth below had risen around him, shielding him. It had moved when he had thrown his arms up, following the movement.  
He had been the one to control it, somehow, subconsciously.  
  
In a panic, he turned to his friends only to see their own fear reflected back at him.  
  
The screams had quieted down to a whisper, as someone in the back said, ' _Gaea_.'

No, that's not possible. That's not right. Gaea wouldn't protect him, never.  
  
'Just like Luke,' another voice said.  
  
Ah, so that's what they meant.  
That _he_ was Gaea.  
  
He passed out not long after, and was greeted with another dream. Tartarus spoke to him this time with an intimate familiarity in his tone.  
  
Upon waking in the medical tents, Chiron sat in front of him with a grave expression.  
  
“It appears as though Gaea is affecting you,” Chiron spoke slowly, as though he was giving a death sentence. Maybe he was.  
  
“The blast that occurred fractured her and her powers, causing her to fall back into a slumber. Things were put properly in check again...however...the same blast fused pieces of her form with your own corpse. If you had stayed dead it wouldn't have mattered, but the cure worked doubly; it brought you back..and it sparked the earth mothers powers yet again.”  
  
_'If you had stayed dead.'_  
He should have, shouldn't he?  
  
“I don't know what this means for your future, Leo Valdez, but I fear that it is likely that as long as you live her powers and her influence within you shall grow..and eventually take over completely.”  
  
To kill the parasite, they'd have to destroy the host.  
  
He'd have to die.  
  
But he didn't want to die, or was that another lie of Gaea's?  
__**  
**“You'll be reborn, and together we shall rule,” Tartarus had whispered.  
Now, Leo realized it wasn't really directed at him... was it?  
  
He delivered the news to his friends, expressionless. There was crying, hugs, promises of figuring something out. Saving him, rescuing him from himself.  
  
Yet, that didn't keep him from over hearing one whisper to another.  
'It's not really him anymore. He never came back. He's already gone.'  
  
Was he? In that case it wouldn't hurt to practice using this power would it?  
  
The ground shifted. Fire and earth met, melding, fusing, creating something new. Magma was more destructive than flames or rocks alone.  
  
He was already gone, wasn't he?  
That's why Jason was pointing a blade at him.  
That's why they were all looking at him like that. Like he was a monster.  
Maybe he was, maybe he always had been. Maybe they were the ones who never really understood.  
  
_“_ _ **I'll be here**_ _.”_  
  
“Leo, if you're still there, give me a sign. I don't want to do this!” Jason yelled, there were tears in his eyes. Torn between fear, duty, and friendship. Ah, he missed that.  
  
Leo tilted his head, opening his eyes slowly, as though he were just waking.  
They were green and black.  
  
“Jason, I never left.”  
  
A familiar smile was painted onto his lips, one that had never been on Leo Valdez' face before.  
  
He was not Gaea. Gaea was not him. He was something entirely new, with a new domain.  
The earth would be reborn from ashes.  
  


 

**Author's Note:**

> I don't even know what that was but I think I might have accidentally implied tartarus/leo


End file.
